HA2 11.4 – Lead Wire and Brass Strip
Slowly but surely, the lead melted into a shiny sup. Hide then scooped the jacket’s remains using a spider web ladle. Some melted lead also got scooped into spider web ladle, but it was not a big deal. Hide only had to wait until the melted lead fall back to the skillet to the last drop, and then he moved the jacket’s remains to a thick cup.
The thick cup had a lip and Hide had preheated it previously. By using a tweezers he moved the jacket’s remains into the cup one by one. After that, he put the cup into electric furnace and continued to melt it using extra-high temperature.
“Now, let’s process the lead,” Hide said as he turned his gaze to Shizuka, “This will be your task so watch the process carefully.”
“Okay,” Shizuka nervously replied.
Without further ado Hide took some kind of wax and put it straight to the melting lead. Two seconds after the wax made a contact with the melted lead, big flame suddenly was engulfed the skilled, but Hide casually stirred the melted led using a long spatula.
“The wax was specifically being designed to draw and bind the impurity in the melted lead. All you have to do is stir it until the flame gone. After that, let the melted lead sit for a few seconds and the impurity will clump in the bottom of skillet.
But you have to make sure no water or sweat fall to the melted lead, or it will trigger dangerous splash to all direction. So, always wipe clean the sweats in your brow and face if you have any.”
Shizuka nodded and said, “Understood.”
After that, Hide put together a mold. It had cylinder shape and as big as child arm. After preheating the mold Hide then poured the melted lead into it. In matter of seconds the melted lead had solidified, so Hide could open the mold and then put the freshly made lead cylinder into a rack.
“You have to wait until the lead completely cooling down before taking it to next process,” Hide said as he scrapped the wax on the bottom of skillet and put it into a bin made of thick metal. “You also have to burn this wax until it fully turned into ash before you can safely disposing it.”
“Understood.”
“Now, can you repeat my step for the rest of projectiles’ remains?”
“I can.”
Hide nodded and then said, “I will teach Takeo how to process the jacket’s remains then?”
“Okay.”
Wasting no time Shizuka processed the next batch of projectile’s remains. As Hide expected, she could do it almost flawlessly.
‘Well, she has accumulated lot of experience working with stove, heat, and skillet from her part time job in Yumi Resto,’ Hide muttered before taking Takeo to electric furnace.
The jacket’s remains in the cup had fully melted, so wasting no time Hide assembly a mold. It had a shape and size like a pieces of chocolate bar. To preheat the mold, he just put it inside the electric furnace next to the cup. After that, by using a clamp with long handle he held the cup and poured the melted brass into the mold. Then, to speed up the cooling process, he put the brass bar into a container full of cold water.
“Can you repeat it?” Hide calmly asked.
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“I can,” Takeo confidently replied.
“Good, I will leave it to you then,” Hide calmly said.
Without delay Takeo started the job. Meanwhile, Hide would supervise Takeo and Shizuka in turn, and an hour later the three had produce a few pieces of lead cylinder and brass bar.
As he observed the pile of brass bar and lead cylinder on the table Hide happily said, “For newbies, you truly produce a nice semi processed material.”
After proudly smiled Shizuka asked, “What is the next step?”
As he pointed at a mechanical roller as big as car’s wheel, not far from where he stood, Hide said, “We will use that thing to turn the brass bar into brass strip, and the lead cylinder into lead wire.”
“I will start with the lead cylinder.” Hide then pointed at Shizuka’s nose as he continued, “And this will be your job.”
“Okay,” Shizuka firmly replied. It seemed she was on fire after the good result she had from previous job.
Wasting no time Hide taught Shizuka how to use the mechanical roller. One by one, Shizuka then turned the lead cylinder into wire as thick as baby’s finger and coiled it into a cable roller. After that, Hide taught her how to cut it into small pieces using heavy mechanical cutter.
“Any question?” Hide calmly asked.
“No,” Shizuka replied as she deeply looked at the mechanical cutter. “It’s just that, the more I look at this device, the more it looks like a mini guillotine.”
“Yup,” Hide casually replied, “and always remembers, this mini guillotine is powerful enough to cut your finger cleanly. So, even if it has cover that will prevent you from accidentally putting your finger in the cutting line, you still have to be very careful when using it.”
“Understood.”
“Now, let’s see how good you absorb my explanation and example.”
“Roger.”
Wasting no time Shizuka put a cable roller full of lead wire into a holder on the left side of mechanical cutter. Then, she inserted the end of lead wire into the lane and pushed it until it touched the stopper plate. After that she set the stopper plate so that every cut would produce the length she wanted.
“Did I set it correctly?” Shizuka asked while maintaining her eyes on the stopper plate.
“You did,” Hide firmly replied.
After a smile Shizuka held the lead wire using her left hand while her right hand reached out for the lever that controlled the thick and heavy blade and pulled it down.
Baam!
With ease the blade cut the lead wire and the first lead core fell into a polymer container below. Wasting no time, Shizuka repeated the cutting process. She swiftly put the lever back into its original position, pushed the lead wire until it touched the stopper plate, and then brought down the heavy blade again.
Shizuka didn’t have to use lot of power. The blade was not only heavy, but was also hydraulic powered, so in matter of minutes she had cut the whole lead wire into lead cores. Then, she turned her gaze to Hide.
“What’s the next step?”
“Measurement control,” Hide said as he pointed at digital caliper and portable digital scale on the table.
“Do you mean I have to weight and measure the lead cores one by one?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Shizuka replied as she checked the portable digital scale. Then, she curiously asked, “What is the meaning of 0.00 labels on this digital scale?”
“It means the digital scale is capable to tell us if the lead core is too heavy or too light up to 0.01 gr precision.”
“I see.”
Hide then took the digital caliper and pointed at 0.00 labels on it. “What about this digital caliper?”
“It means the caliper can tell us if the lead core is too long or too short down to 0.01 mm precision,” Shizuka smugly replied.
“Correct.”
Hide then taught Shizuka how to use the digital scale and digital caliper. It was user-friendly devices so Shizuka mastered the trick after a few tries. She then put the ready to use lead core into a green container box. As for the lead core that required a trimming to reach the desired measurement, she put it into a red container box.
Once Hide was sure Shizuka could do the rest of the job by herself, he went to teach Takeo how to process the brass bar.
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Similar to Shizuka, with ease Takeo mastered the trick to use the mechanical roller. In eight minutes he turned the brass bar into a brass strip.
“This is a good brass strip,” Hide said after inspecting the brass strip.
“What’s next?” Takeo eagerly said.
“Watch this,” Hide said as he put the brass strip under a punching die and then lowered the lever.
Baam!!
With ease the die produced a small coin, and leaved a perfect round hole on the brass strip. Hide then put the small coin into pressing die and turned it into a small cup.
“This is what we call brass cup,” Hide calmly said.
Takeo nodded before saying, “It looks like a primer cup.”
“Yup, make it smaller, and after you anneal and tumble it you will have a nice primer cup. But if what you want is a projectile jacket, you have to draw the cup a few times.”
“Draw the brass cup?” Takeo asked as big question mark appeared in his forehead.
“Drawing is pushing the brass cup into a tube with a slightly smaller diameter. The pushing motion will then expand it into a tube. You do it a few times until you get a tube that slightly longer than what you want. After that you adjust the final length by trimming it.” Hide calmly explained. “Also, you have to anneal the tube between each draw.”
“Based on your experience,” Takeo said as he took the brass cup in Hide’s hand, “How many times we have to draw and anneal the brass cup until we get the desired length?”
“Three times.”
“I see.”
Wasting no time Hide then taught Takeo how to carry the whole process to produce projectile jacket.
Even if Takeo processed only a piece of brass strip, it’s enough to produce 56 piece of brass cup. Then, he drew it one by one three times each. So, it took almost an hour before he finished the drawing and annealing sequence. After that, Hide trimmed the brass tube into projectile jackets before putting it into rotary tumbler.
After observing the tumbler for a moment, Takeo then took the remains of brass strip that now was full of holes and put it in his hand. “What do we do with this leftover?”
“Store it and then melt it when the amount is enough to produce a brass bar.”
“I see,”
After checking and founding that Shizuka was also about to finish her job, Hide immediately said, “It’s already one hour past lunch time. Let’s eat before we continue.”
“Okay,” Takeo calmly replied.
*****